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Mining
Here are your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Thursday, December 3.
Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8) accelerated in morning trade without any fresh announcement to the market since mid-November.
The gold explorer has started field reconnaissance at its Bolt Cutter gold project in WA’s Mallina gold province in the Pilbara.
The province is host to De Grey Mining’s (ASX:DEG) Mallina gold project and its world-class Hemi deposit.
Wildcat Resources has applied for three exploration licences in the Mallina gold province and is the only applicant for the tenements.
“The recent discovery of the Hemi gold deposit by De Grey Mining has uncovered a major new gold system in the Mallina gold province,” said the company in a mid-November statement.
“The exploration maturity of the Mallina Basin is lower than many other gold regions in WA, and recent exploration successes there may indicate that there is significant untested potential in the region,” said Wildcat Resources.
The explorer also has its Mount Adrah gold project in NSW that includes the Hobbs Pipe gold deposit with an estimated resource of 20.5 million tonnes at 1.1 grams per tonne for 770,000 ounces of gold.
Another early gainer was Blue Energy (ASX:BLU) which has sealed a 10-year gas supply deal for its Northern Bowen Basin project.
The company will supply 100 petajoules of gas per year into the Wallumbilla gas trading hub for dispatch to the east coast market.
The customer is power utility Energy Australia and the gas will flow through a proposed new pipeline from the North Bowen basin gasfield to Queensland’s Wallumbilla hub.
“It is very encouraging to see that the acknowledgment by the federal and Queensland governments of the gas potential in the North Bowen Basin has given gas buyers the confidence to seek to secure long-term gas supply agreements for gas from this under-developed producing basin,” managing director, John Phillips, said.
The Morrison government said in September it would provide $28.3m to unlock gas supply from five Australian gas basins including North Bowen, Galilee and Beetaloo in the Northern Territory.
The measure is to address a tight gas market and high gas prices faced by consumers in Australia’s east coast market.
AIC Mines (ASX:A1M) was another early riser Thursday, and its shares gained 20 per cent before lunch time.
The company has been quiet in terms of ASX announcements, its last being an investor presentation in early November.
The small cap is striving to become a mid-tier gold and copper miner through exploration, development and acquisitions.
AIC Mines has two projects in WA, one in the Paterson gold province home to Rio Tinto’s (ASX:RIO) recent Winu copper discovery, and a second in the Yilgarn Craton home to 30 per cent of the world’s known gold reserves.
Drilling started in September at its Lamil joint venture which is 30km west of the massive Telfer gold-copper mine.
AIC Mines can earn an interest of up to 65 per cent in Lamil from its partner Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR).
The company’s Marymia project is 100 per cent owned and is within trucking distance of Superior Gold’s Plutonic gold mine and Sandfire Resources’ (ASX:SFR) DeGrussa copper mine.
Another winning ASX stock in Thursday early trade is Copper Strike Limited (ASX:CSE) which gained nearly 20 per cent.
This rise was without any fresh market news, and the company does not have any exploration interests.
Copper Strike said in its September quarter report that it was looking for acquisition opportunities in the mining space.
Mining investor Tolga Kumova is a non-executive director of Copper Strike, and a founding shareholder of Syrah Resources.
The company owns 9.1 million shares in Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) that operates the Balama graphite operation in Mozambique.
Syrah Resources is building a graphite battery anode plant in the US state of Louisiana.
Iron ore company Fenix Resources (ASX:FEX) pulled away from the ASX pack on announcing it had secured port access for its exports.
Geraldton port in WA has agreed to provide the company with 1.25 million tonnes per year of shipping capacity for its iron ore.
“We have been working closely with the Mid-West Ports Authority for well over a year, and it has now culminated into significant commercial agreements that enable Fenix to commence iron ore production and to export its first shipment of product early in the new year,” managing director, Rob Brierley, said.
The agreement is for four years, with a two-year extension option, and paves the way for Fenix Resources’ first exports in early 2021.
The port access is for the company’s Iron Ridge iron ore project for direct shipping ore (DSO) that is starting up production in December.
The company noted that high-grade iron ore attracts a premium price on the seaborne market as Chinese steel mills are increasingly demanding purer grade ore to reduce their emissions in line with Chinese government regulations.
Iron ore spot market prices hit $US137 per tonne Thursday, their highest since December 2013, as China continues to buy Australian iron ore at a rapid pace.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While De Grey Mining is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
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